Vision & Strategy

Vision

Research at the Faculty of Law has a fundamental and an applied dimension. Its impact on legal practice and the reflection it entails with regard to normative construction, empirical analysis and political power relations has been fundamental to the development of our societies and to the creation of the legal and political framework by which we are governed.

From a thematic perspective, the Faculty’s research focuses on priority areas that encompass the varied interests of its researchers. It also pursues innovative and interdisciplinary approaches, maintaining coherence with national and international developments in legal, political and social research.

• Organization of power and territory
• International and financial governance
• Fundamental rights and vulnerability
• The global digital information society
• New conflict resolution techniques
• Criminalization, socialization and persecution of criminality
• Environmental justice and sustainable development
• Gender and rights

Above the level of each researcher’s individual work, research at the Faculty of Law is structured around the consolidated research groups, the departments and the research centres. The groups obtain funding through competitive calls for the development of projects and for collaborative work at the national and international levels.

The internationalization of research is also a key element in the Faculty’s vision. Research is an intrinsically international pursuit, but as a complex task within a national structure, and given the challenge of obtaining competitive funding, it requires a strategic approach channelled through the Faculty and it researchers.

Strategy

The Faculty of Law’s research strategy, approved by the Faculty Board in December 2018, pursues the following goals:

1. To produce quality, innovative research with impact on society through the development of basic and applied knowledge in the scientific, socio-economic and cultural spheres.
2. To produce a quality research environment with the support structures researchers need to develop as scientists and to guarantee successful generational replacement in the future.
3. To internationalize the Faculty’s research output, making it more visible across academia worldwide, addressing the ongoing phenomenon of Europeanization and legal internationalization.
4. To produce research that raises the quality of learning at bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral level, contributing to the attainment of professional competences and the adoption of values like responsibility and social justice.
5. To provide the means for systematic, qualitative evaluation of legal research taking into account the specificities of the disciplines covered by the Faculty’s researchers.